COV LIFE BLOG

Psalm 15 – The One Worthy to Stand in the Presence of God

What does it mean to sojourn in God’s tent? To dwell on his hill? Those are metaphors for being in the presence of God. Here is the question. Who has the right to live in the presence of God? That is the question. And when you hear that question it gets right to the heart of why you were created. You were made for relationship with God. You were given breath so that you could enjoy communion with him. It doesn’t matter if you acknowledge it or not, the very nature of a human being is you were made for God, you were connected to God by the very nature of being given life and breath. Bottom line, that is what your life is about.
 
And so this question is: Who has the right to actually do what he was created to do?
 
And the answer is a crushing one.
 
You will not understand. You do not understand what Psalm 15 is about, brother and sisters, unless you are crushed by this answer. I want to tell you, my response to Psalm 15 this week was this psalm crushed me. I mean that because the answer is only a person who is purely righteous in every way has the right to be a guest in God’s house. Only a person who is perfectly holy has a right to live in the presence of God. And when you hear that answer and you scan your week you say, “Not me, not me.”
 
You can’t really understand Psalm 15 unless you understand this psalm is meant to remind you that you and I will never achieve acceptance with God based on our own righteousness. This psalm calls you to abandon your righteousness. It echoes these amazing words from 2 Corinthians five, “For our sake God made him, Christ, to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
 
Christ is your righteousness. He lived on your behalf. Every moment of righteousness, every good choice, every rightly spoken word, every godly decision, every moment of righteous encounter that was lived by Christ as lived for you and for me. He was achieving the righteousness that we could not achieve on our own so that this evening you could run in your weakness and your failure and your sin and your struggle and your rebellion to him and seek his help and be unafraid because your righteousness was purchased by Christ and your penalty has been borne on his back. Praise him.
 
You are only ever invited into the holy presence of God—are you listening to me?—when you abandon your own righteousness. Give it up. When you take off the righteousness that only can be found in the Lord Jesus Christ you do not have to run from God’s presence. You do not have to be afraid. You can come to him. The price has been paid.

Paul Tripp

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SCRIPTURES FOR THIS SUNDAY
Read Psalm 15. As you look at these verses and consider the outstanding character required of those who stand before God, does it cause you to recognize your own inadequacy to be meet God’s standards? And does it cause you to rejoice to know that One has bought your righteousness in your place?

SONG FOR THIS WEEK
Grace Greater Than All Our Sin by Julia H. Johnston